Rearview Mirror
by Luckylily
Summary: Deleted future scene from Sleeping Habits. Set after Tim moves back home with Billy.


A/N: This originally was going to be part of Sleeping Habits further on down the line, but taking into consideration where that story is heading at the moment, this isn't going to be necessary, and I'm not even too sure how it would have been included into the plot, so I've decided to offer it up to y'all as a one shot in the mean time! A big thanks to Brophy once again for her beta work! :)

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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**Rearview Mirror**

Julie bit her bottom lip and frowned nervously as she stared at the flashing light on the dashboard in front of her.

This was not good.

That was the water symbol wasn't it?

The one with the squiggly lines?

She really ought to have paid more attention to her Dad when he was lecturing her on stuff like this for her test before promptly forgetting it all as soon as she didn't need it any longer.

Could she make it home?

Turning her eyes back down to the dashboard, Julie noticed the temperature gage rising, actually she amended, it wasn't rising, it was already on red.

Shit!

Miserably she thought back to her mobile phone sitting on the counter at home. Of all the times to forget the damn thing! She'd been too lazy to go back to the house and get it because she'd never needed it before! Obviously today just had to be the one time she could have actually usedthe blasted thing.

Okay, she told herself. Just keep calm.

She could probably make it home… Or to someplace with a phone…

Was that… No… She was probably just seeing things… Over active imagination… Her mind was running away with her… She was just getting herself worked up over one teensy little problem…

She saw another tendril of steam. "Please let that be steam and not smoke," Julie pleaded to herself, watching the grey wisp rise from the hood of the car.

Maybe if she drove a little faster so she couldn't see the steam, she could ignore the problem until she got home.

But that could completely wreck the engine…

She panicked. What if it was smoke?

What if the engine just decided to go ka-boom and explode?!

"Oh my god, oh my god," She muttered seeing the amount of steam emerging from the engine increase.

She was going to die! If the car didn't explode and kill her, her Dad certainly would when he got the bill back from the garage. She didn't have the first idea of how much things cost when something went wrong with a car, but judging by the hissing sound that had started and the steam or smoke rising from the hood of the car, it was going to be expensive.

Pulling over to the side of the road, Julie cut off the engine and slid out of the car door.

Leaning back into the driver's side, she searched for the lever that would pop the hood. It was around her somewhere… Running her fingers along the corners of the drivers side, she gave a relieved sigh as her fingers caught on something.

Yanking on the lever, there was a dull cranking sound and then a flood more of steam and smoke emerged from under the hood.

Maybe one of her parents had topped the car up with oil and forgotten to put the cap back on. She thought positively. That had happened before.

Maybe she just needed to screw it into place and 'hey presto!' problem solved. Of course, that wouldn't change the fact the water light was flashing, the temperature gage was up or the hissing sound either, but still, she thought resolutely, it could be part of the problem.

Walking around to the front of the car and waving her hand in front of her face to help disperse the steamy smoke billowing around her, Julie took a deep breath and then reached out to lift the hood up.

Not that she had the first idea about cars, but that's what people do.

The car breaks down, they get out and pop the hood, have a look at the engine while making a few speculative sounds before admitting that no, they didn't know what was wrong and they'd have to wait for a mechanic to tell them.

As her hand came into contact with the hot metal, Julie gave a yelp of pain as the heat burnt her fingers and thumb. Choking as she inhaled a lung full of those horrid grey fumes, she backed away, waving her hand about in an attempt to reduce the pain of the burns.

Once she got her breathing under control, Julie blew on the reddened digits. Nothing too bad, she admitted, once they'd been cleaned and had some burn cream applied if they were still sore, they'd be as good as new.

But in the mean time, she wasn't going to go near that stupid piece of junk!

Why did it have to be the one day she'd forgotten her phone?

At least she'd broken down on one of the main roads though, she assured herself. It wouldn't be too long before someone drove past and recognized Coach Taylor's car and stopped by to investigate.

The thought had no sooner run through her head when Julie heard the sound of a car approaching.

Yes! She thought. It would appear she wouldn't have that long at all.

The elation flowing through her body quickly stopped, though, as she recognized the car approaching.

This was not happening, her mind whimpered.

If she needed proof, that yes, the day could get worse, this was it.

And they'd seen her damn it! She couldn't even duck down and hide and at least retain some of her dignity.

Someone, somewhere, was looking down at her and laughing.

Julie watched as the car slowed down and then pulled over ahead of her and felt the familiar tension and awkwardness wash over her as Matt stepped out of the car while his current girlfriend, Carlotta, remained inside.

To her surprise it wasn't quite as bad as she expected, or even remembered if she compared it to the unfortunate encounter they'd had that time before the storm where she'd all but dragged Tim out along with her as soon as the pair of them had turned up.

She was getting over him, she realized a little bit sadly as she acknowledged that her feelings for Matt Saracen, her first proper boyfriend, her first love, were disintegrating.

She still felt slightly uncomfortable around him, but that, she knew, was more to do with her pride than anything else.

It would have been one thing for him to get it on with some rally girl where she could assure herself she was far better than some airhead who would open her legs for the entire football team and brag about it afterwards.

It was another thing for him to be dating a woman, who, as much as she hated to admit it (if only to herself) was beautiful, and older and had far more experience than she currently did.

There was nothing like seeing your ex move on with someone like that to make you feel insignificant.

That he could move on so quickly with someone else, that he could just jump into bed with them, hurt more than she would have liked it. Call her self-centered, but she'd thought she'd meant more to him than that.

Obviously not, and obviously sex was a bigger deal than he'd made it out to be. At least he'd have something to brag about in the locker rooms, she thought viciously.

The audience of the rest of Dillon looking on certainly didn't help matters either.

"H-hey."

"Matt." She said in greeting calmly, keeping her voice as even as possible as her ex boyfriend came to an awkward halt.

"Car trouble?" He asked motioning towards her vehicle that still had the odd wisp of smoke emerging from it.

Julie nodded. "Yeah."

"D-do you need some help?"

Yeah, Julie thought, a cell phone would be really useful right about now. Do you happen to have one?

Knowing her luck he'd reply no, but he was sure Carlotta would be happy for her to use her one.

"No thanks." Julie lied. "Everything is under control."

The skin around Matt's mouth tightened, a coldness entering his eyes that she wasn't used to seeing there.

She wasn't sure which one she hated the most, that look or the kicked puppy one with which she was most familiar.

"Just because it's me doesn't mean you have to lie Julie." Matt told her harshly. "Stop being such a selfish, stupid, immature child about it! Why are you always like this?"

The cutting words hurt more than she would have liked, but Julie was determined not to show that. "I'm not lying Matt!" She hissed back at him. "I told you, everything is under control. I've already called someone, happy?" She snipped sarcastically.

"Fine!" He responded stubbornly. "We'll wait until your 'help' arrives."

Gritting her teeth in annoyance Julie said, "You don't need to do that. They'll be here any minute. There's no need for you to hang around."

"Yeah? Who did you call Julie?" Matt demanded.

Planting her hands on her hips in an attempt to show that he hadn't rattled her, (because she knew that if he did stay to wait for her help to arrive that he'd find out she hadn't actually called any one) Julie snapped, "It doesn't matter who I called Matt, I'm not getting into this with you!"

"No, the only reason you don't want to get into this with me is because you're lying and you haven't actually called anyone. I'm trying to help, and you're acting like a selfish brat! I know you're Daddy's little princess but it's time to grow up!"

Crossing her arms in front of herself defensively, Julie gave in and took a step back, uncaring if it gave away how much his uncharacteristic outburst had hurt.

"Well right now, it's time for you to leave." Julie said, hearing a car pull up behind them and the sound of a door opening and before being slammed shut.

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The customary silence stretched between the two brothers.

Tim might have moved back home, and Billy's involvement with Jackie might have ended when she was offered a new position with the bank out of town, but things with his brother still weren't right.

Billy had never really understood his brother to begin with, but now that he'd moved back after his stay with the Taylor's, there were even more elements of Tim that didn't make sense.

He wasn't the same boy that had left.

"So…you up for heading out to the bar tonight for a few games of pool?" Billy asked his younger brother.

"Yeah," Tim replied distractedly, his eyes staring out of the window.

Since when had his brother been so uninterested in going a bar? Usually there was a lazy comment accompanied by smirk of some kind.

"Or the Landing Strip if you want." Commented Billy, eager to get back onto equal footing with Tim.

An unintelligible grunt was the only response he got for his trouble.

"Hey is that-"

"Pull over." Tim demanded before Billy could finish his sentence.

"What?"

"I said pull over! Now Billy!" Tim snapped, reaching over and yanking on the steering wheel.

Billy swore. "Christ Tim!" Slamming on the breaks to help regain control of the truck as it swerved off the road and came to a bouncing stop behind the Taylor's car.

Tim jumped out immediately, and Billy followed suit as soon as he'd pulled the handbrake into position.

Following along, Billy watched as his younger brother sauntered up to Coach Taylor's daughter, and wrapped his arm around her waist. Tim pulled the girl into his body and hooked his thumb into the belt loop of her jeans, while he leant forward and to slap Matt Saracen's palm and then knock their knuckles together in greeting. The stunned Quarterback returned the motions automatically.

"Seven," Tim greeted his team mate as he felt Julie relax against him. "What's up?"

"R-riggins…uh…w-what - er…w-what a-a-are…" The Quarterback stumbled over his words, his eyes flickering back and forth between the pair of them.

Having had enough of the incoherent words falling from Matt's mouth, Tim interrupted his teammate's stuttering speech. "Thanks for keeping an eye out for Jules," He drawled, giving Julie a squeeze and pulling her against him a little more. "I owe ya one."

Matt's mouth opened wordlessly as he tried to form words, but the ability was taken away from him as he saw Julie glance up at Riggins with adoration and complete confidence written on her face along with a heightened color along her cheeks.

"But I got it from here man." Tim said lazily, his blunt declaration catching Matt off guard.

He couldn't ignore the dismissal, even if he wanted to; it was so clear.

Licking his lips as he tried to remember how to speak with words and not just incomprehensible vowel sounds, Matt nodded numbly, unable to believe what was going on.

Was this some kind of nightmare?

It had to be because he was sure that Riggins had just somehow implied that Julie Taylor was his girl, that she was his responsibility and now that he was there, no one else was needed.

The Fullback had actually had the audacity to thank him for looking out for Julie, **–** no not Julie, it was 'Jules' **–** that he owed him one, as if he, Matt Saracen, had stepped out of he'd gone above and beyond by trying to help out his ex-girlfriend(even if they didn't part on the best of terms) before giving him a straight out order to leave.

Stiffly, he nodded and headed back to his car, to Carlotta waiting inside of it for him.

He fought the urge to glance back over his shoulder at the pair of them. He wanted to, until he sat back down in the drivers seat and heard a squeal come from Julie.

He glanced up in the rear view mirror in time to catch sight of her throwing herself into Tim Riggins arms, her feet dangling off the ground as she hugged him.

His eyes shifted away from the painful scene and he stared blankly out of the windscreen.

"Matt. Matt." Said Carlotta, tapping him on the leg. "What are you waiting for?"

He glanced over at her; the older, sexy, sophisticated woman that the other players were hot for and couldn't believe that it was their shy, stuttering QB1 scoring with her.

"Nothing." He replied shaking his head to try and clear out the cobwebs. "Nothing." He repeated quietly to himself.

He started the engine and pulled away, glancing back in the rear mirror one last time.

Julie was moving on. It was time for him to do the same.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed!


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